Build Guide by Dante Rebellion

Forbidden Style

"The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success."

Please read the Guide before rating, comments and feedback will be much appreciated.

Last Updated: 10-1-2011

Thank You S0laris and D Bross for testing the validity of the build.
This Guide is based on the template made by SixSonatas.
6/1/2011 : Updated with the new MobaFire build creator
10/1/2011: Added a Troll Filter, Lulz, comment to vote.

Welcome to my first MobaFire guide. This guide will show how to play a very unique and strange Master Yi. I know you must be wondering about how I have truly gone to the dark side to even think Yi could be played as a tank. With his low health and frail armor, yet horrifyingly high damage the only logical way to play him is full offensive. Or is it?

Yi, has the potential to become a beefy champion, he has the right abilities to become a tank or to the very least a DPS Champion that does not fear to initiate into a raging war, kill his target and make it very much alive. This idea made me giggle in the start.. but then, it caught on, like an infection in my mind I could not stop thinking about it. So... *twitch* *hee-hee* I tried it.

The results, well... were just magnificent. Never have I played master Yi, received more than 15 kills and have 0 deaths. Never have I been able to just run into a group of opponents and come out alive. Never have I been able to run through 2 turrets just to secure my kill, and come out of it.. Alive.

Double Strike - This passive Scales with your actual damage (Wuju Style will affect this damage scale). It is great for maintianing pressure on the opponent. It is Extreamly usefull in farming also (last hitting minnions,etc).

Alpha Strike - Great skill for jumping into the battle, farming and escaping. However this skill ignores your melee damage, the damage is magical and gets lowered by magic resistance, so it will be based on your Ability Power.

Meditate - Usually, people ignore this skill and it doesn't make a big difference to offensive Yi's. However with our massive Health this skill can make the Forbidden Yi like a block of steel, it will allow you to lane longer and recharge yourself after a tough battle.

Wuju Style - This is your bread and butter, your favourite skill. Passivly increases your swing melee damage, and on use you get up to +70 damage. This skill will really help you deal alot of damage, so you can build tanky.

Highlander - Similar to Ragnarok, just.. alot..better. It allows you to catch absolutly everything, and run away from absolutely everything. "You cannot be slowed" is just ******icly pleasing. The best part about this ultimate is that after you are done ripping opponent whilst the skill is active, you can rinse and repeat! (all cooldowns will be refreshed). Hello Double, Tripel, multi, penta-kills (Lol not sure about the penta ;P, but you get the picture).

You may notice that I prefer to max Meditate before Alpha strike, that is mainly because I use alpha strike to catch up to my enemies (since it scales with Ability power and won't deal alot of damage with this build), meditate serves as a much more helpful tool. You can max alpha strike before meditate, but remember you will not be as beefy.

MAIN


Cleanse: You are already great at escaping, combined with this skill, you are impossible to stop. Your Health,damage, speed and CC immunity will make you ******** scary. Not much to be said about this skill, it saves lives.

Exhaust: This skill is a near must for all Melee DPS. It provides a slow in which you can either use to catch up to an enemy or help escape from an enemy, it also really helps out in team fights, how does it help? Well it reduces the damage of your opponents by a very noticeable amount, it also slows them down so they cannot effectively avoid skills or position themselves correctly.

Other Options:

Ghost: Alot of top players use ghost, however it really isn't that great since you have highlander, if you are really used to it, sacrifice Exhaust.

Teleport: This is a personal favourite of mine, when I play an offensive Yi. It helps me quickly get into the battle and also makes a lovely escape tool. The main purpose of this spell is to help you gank and backdoor, if you want to use it replace Cleanse.

Clarity: "Oh my god, did this idiot just say clarity on Yi?! I am going to downrate this build so f--king hard", now hold on. I might have lost my mind, but Clarity really isn't that bad. Look, this build can be very heavy on your mana and it is wise to get the blue buff to help resolve this, but don't you hate those moments where you can't alpha strike and get that kill you deserve because your out of mana? Or when your team has a bunch of casters and it is near impossible to get the blue buff? well this is your solution, your greedy friend. You don't have to get it, but it is an option. Consider it. Replace Cleanse if you get this.

Greater Mark of Desolation Armor Penetration is better than Attack Damage and Attack Speed, there is alot of boring math out there to prove this. The stat (ArP) truely shines Late Game.

Greater Seal of Evasion Considering that this build is aimed at surviving, stacking Dodge runes will give you a higher chance. It allows you to dodge some harmful auto-attack damage from both champions and minions (who can really deal alot when they are many against you.) and for a lovely bonus, your Nimbleness will proc more often.

Greater Glyph of Critical Damage You have a good 40% Crit chance, and you will be lacking quite a bit of damage.. so when you land a Crit, make it count!

Greater Quintessence of Health Gives you more health which will make a huge difference in the early game stage, yes...finally you won't be so damn squishy.

Resistance - A very important talent considering you have very little magic resistance, unless you get a FoN (force of nature).

Hardiness - Gives you much needed armor. Helps beef you up.

Evasion - More dodge, stacks well with your runes.

Nimbleness - 10% Movement speed increase for 5 seconds. With your dodge runes and masteries, consider this a must have. Great for escape and moving around.

Defensive Mastery - At times it's going to be you vs. a ton of minions, this skill will help you reduce the incoming damage dealt to yourself, which will be great in the early to mid-game phase, it looses its power after you get Zeke's Harbinger. So it would be quite a bad idea to max the talent.

Veteran's Scars - More health. Nuff' said.

Willpower - This helps you use your Cleanse more often, a skill that always proves to be useful.

Ardor - I really like Ardor, it helps you still effectively deal damage. It grants you some attack speed which will stack well with Youmuu's Ghostblade and Zeke's Harbinger, plus some ability power which can help your Meditate and Alpha Strike a bit (hey, something is better than nothing!)

Tenacity - 4% damage reduction, you are now officially beefed up.

Perseverence - Warmog's Armor is already helping you alot with health regeneration, might as well get this talent and really boost the regeneration of not only your health but mana too.

Good Hands - That's what she said *growl*.. 3.33% time spent dead is always good, get into the battlefield faster! Why not max this talent? Well.. we don't plan on dying so easily with this build!

Awareness - Helps you level faster, this is a very important talent since it helps you reach your full potential alot faster. Once you are level 18, you get alot more health and regeneration.

Cripple- Exhaust is one of your important summoner spells, get this and improve its power!

This is what my guide is based on, a beefy tanky Master Yi. Assuming you have read the previous chapters you have seen me use the word "beefy" alot, and I belive that I should properly explain what I mean when I say "beefy". The best way of explaining the word is for me to help you understand my choice of items.

Master Yi is gifted when it comes to damage, he deals a truck load of damage when given the right items. A typical Master Yi build will have items like: Zeke's Harbinger, Boots of Speed, Youmuu's Ghostblade, Phantom Dancer, Infinity Edge and The Bloodthirster. Now.. out of those powerful DPS items, I had to decide what would be best for the Forbidden Style Yi.. as it is, Warmog's Armor is quite expensive and so is Atma's Impaler, price has to be considered.

This build requires you to get fed, to get kills and assists. What can be a better starting damage dealing item other than Youmuu's Ghostblade? For only 2272 you can get some decent stats, a beautiful passive and an even better active (which happens to stack with Highlander). It's safe to say that you will be able to get quite a few kills with this item (worst case scenario).

The item that will get you to 3500+ health at level 18. The item that will make you "beefy", yes.. Warmog's Armor. A great item which comes at a high price. This is what makes you different from the other Yi's, the synergy in which health and regeneration stack is amazing.

Zeke's Harbinger is my personal choice, however I feel that it should be a vital part in any Yi build (apart from maybe Ability Power Yi). It offers a much needed 20 attack speed and helps your team by giving them an aura which boosts their Attack Speed and Lifesteal by 20%, 30 health per 5 seconds regeneration and reduces your opponents armor by 20, so you and your team can rip them apart. All this for 1850, what a deal.

Atma's Impaler is an item I would get late game, the reason is because it scales with your health, so in the late game stages you have the most amount of health which means you get the most possible amount of Attack Damage from the item. It can go to around 80 AD. This item also offers 45 armor and 18 critical strike chance, very useful stats for this type of Yi. At quite a high price, I assure you that it works incredible with Warmog's Armor.

The last item is very situational you can get a Madred's Bloodrazor if you are fed enough and up against some beefy/tanky champions. If you are incredibly fed you will want to get an Infinity Edge to maximise your damage, you can get Aegis of the Legion to help out more in teamfights, or if you just want to get a sweet revenge kill, or a second chance get the Guardian Angel.

Finally regarding situational items, there are many options out there, however I HIGHLY recommend you stick to the build. This build itself is situational. The situational items can be implemented after you have warmog's

Thornmail if you are against alot of Melee champions
Banshee's Veil if you are against alot of mage champions
Force of Nature equally useful against alot of ability power champions
Sword of the Divine Great against heavy blinders and dodgers
A Force of Nature and Spirit Visage combo is great for dealing with opponents who have bloodrazor.
Boots - Ninja Tabi against heavy Melee teams, Mercury's Treads if you are against a heavy CC team, Boots of Swiftness if you are doing great in the start of the game. Berserker's Greaves if you want to cut the turrets faster, these boots can also speed up your minion farming. Most of the time I go with Mercury's Treads.

In this section of the guide, I will explain to you how you should lane, PvP and jungle to be effective throughout the game. Playing this kind of Master Yi will give you an advantage in the early and late game stage, mainly because you will have alot of health and armor. Let's face it, how often does Yi get to mid? usually there are more important champions such as karthus, annie or malzahar that benefit much more from the mid. So this build will really help you survive the horrors of the top and bottom lanes.

At the start of the game you will want to lane with someone who can disable or CC, this will increase your chances of getting first blood. Rush to your lane and hide in the bushes close to your tower, over extending can cost you alot and is usually not successful. If your opponents enter your bush quickly engage by targeting the enemy with the least HP, activate Wuju style and beat the **** out of him, Exhaust the other champion after he attacks you a bit, now your laning partner should also focus on attacking the opponent and trying to CC him if he runs away. Don't worry too much if you use all your summoner spells in the start, after the minions spawn it is better to play defensive until they get closer to your turret. Focus on getting 825+ gold before you recall, so you can buy your Boots of Speed and Ruby Crystal. Keep on farming till you can upgrade your boots (look at the situational items section) and can get the Youmuu's Ghostblade.

Maintain the pressure on your opponents and always try to gank when you can, even if it means running to the mid lane. During this phase of the game you really want to try and get atleast 1 kill.

You know it's mid game when everyone starts to pile up in the middle lane, and team fights erupt. This is going to be the hardest part for you, because your damage won't really be high and your survivability will be limited. At this time I recomend you jungle a bit, just for a bit more gold, try and grab some buffs if you can. Now the main reason I state that you should jungle, is because you will be reasonably close to the middle lane, and will pop into a team fight after they initiate and ultimate's pop out everywhere. Some people will rage and say, "KILL STEALER NOOB", you are NOT a kill stealer, you are simply sharing the gold amongst the team since assists give gold also so now you have two people+ getting gold besides just one person> ???> Profit. Be careful and try and get your Warmog's Armor fast.

After you get Warmog's Armor you can now help out more in team fights, and also drift to the other lanes that are having some minion problems and help those lanes out, Cleanse and Highlander are your best friends, do not be afraid to use them when you are in a tight situation.

Note: This song will come in very handy at this stage.
/league-of-legends/champion/jax-15

>> When in an attempt to get first blood (before the Minions Spawn) fails. As you run back to your turret, DO NOT USE YOUR HEALTH POTION. I have seen many people do it, just Recall back to base and go back up.

>> Remember to only Last Hit minions, when the minion's HP is low then attack it, hopefully it will kill the minion and thus increase your gold farming. The advantage of this is that the opponents will extend to your side, so they have more distance to run for the protection of the turret. This will help you gank them alot easier.

>> Do not Meditate too late. Its simple, the opponent unleashes most of his damage in the start, so using meditate will save you from the incoming slaughter and leave the opponent in a state where he has to deal with cooldowns. This method does not work against all champions, but its always better to meditate when you have just a bit above 50% health.

>> Move around. Never stand in one place, this makes it alot easier for you to get aimed at and targeted, be constantly moving! Moving also results in you clicking all over alot, this will warm your hand up and get it ready.. so you can react faster.

>> You are not god. Please, don't do stupid things and blame it on the guide. I am not going to give examples, im sure you know when you do something idiotic in-game.

>> Help your team farm dragon. Dragon gives you alot of gold, around the same gold as killing a champion or two. The team who constantly farms the dragon will have a huge advantage.

>> Don't try and save a team-mate who is obviously going to die, no matter what you do. He died a noble death.

I hope you enjoyed reading my extreamly long guide on playing Forbidden Style. I repeat this build is hard to play, and you should not play it if you are not laning with a good partner who can disable (well you can, but it will be harder on you). If you find at any point this build is not working with you, I have made it so you can easily switch. Let me explain, this build is extreamly similar to a pure dps Yi, with just alot more survivability. After you get Warmog's Armor and you still feel like it is not working for you, you can sell it and get Zeke's Harbinger sooner. After that you can pursue to get your Infinity Edge.







Sup?

This guide will be frequently updated, more pictures, strategies, etc will be added.